Joe's Random Ramblings

I have an old computer with Windows XP SP1, that I use once or twice a year, to run programs that don't exist for Linux.
Recent Windows programs, e.g., iTunes, nowadays require at least XP SP2, though.
I have neither need nor time to upgrade that old computer, which runs on a Pentium 3, to SP2 or SP3 (I don't even want to imagine the crawl the system would end up with under Vista or Win7...) So, knowing that the differentiation of Windows versions is often just based on some registry key, I searched for a way to make programs think the system is XP SP2. And somebody indeed has located the magic registry key:

Go to: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows"
And change "CSDVersion" from the SP1 value (0x00000100) to SP2 value (0x00000200)

Seems to work fine, after rebooting the machine.
But of course, unless running behind a decent firewall (e.g., Linux-based, like in my network), nobody should do this. An unprotected Windows XP SP1 machine is bound to be cracked within minutes.
Even a fully-patched Windows machine with the latest service packs should only be run behind a good firewall.

Update: This has limits, in that there are some new functions in the files installed by XP SP2. It seems that .Net 4.0 requires some of these functions. The .Net 4.0 installation will fail with this faked SP2. If an applications needs .Net 4.0, the only option is to actually install SP2.